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Across the room, Dewey slid another book onto the stack. He spun and barreled across the room toward Paige.
She dropped the books on the floor as she swung her arms out. They thudded against the thick carpeting, coming dangerously close to breaking her toes. She pressed her arms against the doorjamb, blocking his departure.
“Stop,” Paige shouted. “We didn’t finish our conversation.”
Dewey hovered in front of her. “It was finished as far as I’m concerned.”
“It’s not!”
Dewey shot toward her. Paige squatted down, her features pinching as she prepared for him to slam into her. He stopped his forward motion, his tiny feet flinging forward as he pulled back. With a wrinkled nose and furrowed brow, he dove toward an open spot near her waist.
She shifted to block him. He tried again, attempting to shoot between her ankles.
“Stop!” she shouted again, catching hold of him.
“Let me go! Put me down, you gigantic brute!” Dewey shouted as she strong-armed him back into the nest.
“Never!” Paige yelled, her limbs flailing in a desperate attempt to hold on to the thrashing dragon.
“I’ve got claws. I’ll use them!”
Paige flexed her jaw, her words spoken through clenched teeth. “Just try it. I’ve wrangled a cat into a carrier for a vet visit. I can handle anything.”
A grumbling sound came from the tiny dragon before he let out a screech. Paige recognized it as the sound she’d heard when opening the door the night before.
The two struggled across the room until Paige pinned Dewey onto his chaise. “What’s wrong with you?”
“With me?” he shouted, his tiny legs kicking against her grip. “I’m not the one who assaulted a coworker.”
“Dewey! I don’t understand why you won’t finish this discussion.”
Dewey’s eyes burned with fury as he shot a glance at her, his paws balled into fists. He pounded them against the chaise as he spoke. “There is nothing to discuss. I stay here and research. You go into the field and retrieve things. You get the glory. I get the work.”
Paige shook her head as she tried to understand him. “Why?”
“Look at me. Do you think I can waltz out of the library any time and track down a missing item?”
Paige considered that, her face scrunching. “So, you’ve… You’ve never left the library?”
Dewey shimmied to free himself from her grip. He straightened in his seat, pushing himself upward. “No. And the last librarian preferred it. He’d stop by, get the work I’d do, and off he’d go. I barely saw him.”
Paige wandered across to her chair and plopped into it. “Well, that’s terrible.”
“Occasionally, Ronnie would visit with me, but she has her hands full with the upstairs and this.”
“So, you’ve been down here all alone for over ten years?”
“More or less,” Dewey admitted.
She let her face fall as she imagined being locked underground for over a decade with little to no contact with the outside world. She pressed her lips together and shot a glance at Dewey.
“Don’t give me that pitying look. I understood what I was getting into when I took the job. At least I’m making a difference. Which is more than my parents said I would.”
Paige shook her head, her fingers digging into the thick cushion. “But still, when you took the job, you couldn’t have expected your partner to be such an… Well, an ass!”
Dewey wiggled forward, letting his legs dangle over the side of the chaise. “I had hoped for better.”
Paige nodded, pressing her lips together.
